The work of Swiss artist Béatrice Helg occupies a unique place in the tradition of staged photography which emerged in the 1980s. Indeed, far from hyperrealist or narrative works, reconstructions of scenes from the daily life, his work shows abstract forms, a luminous world. Influenced by the Russian avant-garde and constructivism, passionate about music, sensitive to notions of space and time, architecture, the staging of theater and opera, the artist creates monumental spaces where sculpture, painting, installation and above all light interact.
« What is this light beyond the measure of time which is born from silence and enlarges space? »
asked the director Claude Régy in The State of Uncertainty. More than any other, light is here the material without which the work does not exist. It is the medium through which all revelation is possible. Béatrice Helg's photographs present universes of shadow and light of strange beauty, as poetic as they are spiritual, her work opens onto an infinity or the search for an inner mystery.
In the Orangery of Maison Caillebotte, Béatrice Helg will present a selection of large format works from the Cosmos, Résonance series and previously unpublished photographs from the Natura, 2023 series. There is an almost sacred quality in these recent works which evoke the vulnerability of ancient nature and remind us that our spirit, our soul is inseparable from nature and our environment.
BÉATRICE HELG was born in Geneva in 1956. She studied photography at the California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, and at the Brooks Institute, Santa Barbara, California. In 1978-1979, she continued her training at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York. In 1979, she participated in the organization of Venezia’79 – la Fotografia in Venice. In 1981-1982, she worked in the exhibitions department of ICP in New York. Béatrice Helg lives and works in Geneva.
From his beginnings, the artist developed a specific writing of space, light, matter, which will be recognized internationally. Nearly 70 solo exhibitions have been devoted to his work in Europe, the United States and Japan, including an exhibition at the Palazzo Fortuny, Venice; at the Tinguely Museum, Basel; at the IVAM Valencià Institute of Modern Art, Valencia; at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; at the Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego; at Paris Photo and at the Rencontres d’Arles.
Her works appear in many renowned collections: the National Library of France and the European House of Photography, Paris; the Martin Bodmer Foundation, Cologny (Geneva); Photo Elysée, Lausanne; the Brooklyn Museum and the International Center of Photography, New York; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
Among her recent publications, let us cite the important monograph BÉATRICE HELG, with a dedication poem by Robert Wilson, texts by Serge Linarès and Philippe Piguet, and a poem by Sylviane Dupuis published by 5 Continents Editions, Milan.
On the occasion of the exhibition BÉATRICE HELG – A Luminous World, Maison Caillebotte is publishing an exhibition catalog including an interview by Valérie Dupont-Aignan with Béatrice Helg, a text by Béatrice Andrieux, independent exhibition curator, specialized in photography and contemporary art, a biography of the artist and reproductions of all the works exhibited.
Cover artwork:
Béatrice Helg, Résonance VI (details), 2019, archival pigment print, 160 x 116.7 cm. Copyright © 2024 Béatrice Helg. All rights reserved.
